Enduring Power of Attorney

Enduring Powers of Attorney:

• • enable the donor’s trusted relatives or friends to look after their finances, despite mental incapacity;

• • are very useful for baby boomers who are living a lot longer, but with a higher incidence of dementia;

• • come in 2 flavours:
    • one which takes effect immediately; and
    • the other which does not come in force until the State Administrative Tribunal declares the donor is mentally incapable.

We only ever allow our clients to execute the first type, because the other defeats the purpose of having an EPA, given that the same evidence is needed if you need to go to the SAT for an administration order if your loved one does not have an EPA.

We have a current client whose wife executed the second type.  We have had to:

• • make an application to State Administrative Tribunal on his behalf;

• • liaise with the couple’s financial advisor to obtain financial information which the SAT now requires for this sort of application, for no good reason;

• • chase up the doctor for a report to prove that our client’s wife has dementia;

• • we will need to attend on our client’s behalf at the hearing; and

• • the hearing is not until October!

… all of which would have been unnecessary if the first type of EPA had been executed.

For pragmatic EPAs and SAT applications in relation to unpragmatic EPAs, see Michael Paterson & Associates.